By Savitha Hira with inputs from Sonal Mamoowala
Photography: Courtesy the designers
Read Time: 2 mins
The Al Sultan Lebanese
restaurant in Mayfair, London reflects seamless synergy of technology,
craftsmanship and design, establishing the perfect tone for an immersive narrative…
The first Lebanese
restaurant in London in 1986 has gone through a refurbishment at the hands of
IDEA Interiors, a design agency known for creating bespoke mesmeric
environments.
With an aim to amalgamate
traditional Islamic patterns and décor with contemporary European aesthetics in
sync with a modern mindset, conventional nuances are subtly modernized into
predominant geometric patterns (typically round,
square, interlaced…symbolic of unity and order) in form of a finely crafted,
laser-cut aluminium
brass-coloured latticed grill that fluidly envelopes
the interiors, wrapping around walls, columns, even finding a perfect adjunct
in bespoke ceiling lights, infusing the interiors with an aura of grandeur and
glamour!
The compact restaurant with just 50 covers comes
alive with ingenious lighting, where custom-designed circular chandeliers create
reflecting rings on
the Venetian stucco ceiling; spotlights have the same effect on the latticed
walls; and the most intriguing – the lighting of the latticed grill on both
sides gives the tight space much of its volume.
Working on creating an
aesthetic high, the designers are careful to create perfect tableaus and keep
furniture lines to a minimum – straight lines and subtle curves in an almost
monochromatic schema, allowing the ornamentation to take precedence. The
flooring in Wenge and walnut sunburst parquetry with its hexagonal pattern is
once again reminiscent of traditional Islamic ornamentation as are the
hand-woven Christian Fischbacher sheer drapes.
The elegantly chiselled
interior transports the
guest from the mundane into an ambience that is opulent and dream-like – a premise
that stems from the very basics of the need for eating out. And the designers
here take good care of retaining the distinct aura of traditional Islamic architecture,
transposing it in a more receptive contemporary setting. All-in-all, vintage silhouettes
are given a contemporary twist to translate antiquity with great panache for a
signature look with understated elegance!
very artistic and beautiful.
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